Sílvia Orriols Serra (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈsilβiə uriˈɔls]; born 9 October 1984) is a Catalan politician, president of the far-right political party Catalan Alliance, and mayor of Ripoll since June 2023.[1][2]

Sílvia Orriols
Mayor of Ripoll
Assumed office
17 June 2023
Preceded byJordi Munell [ca]
Member of the Parliament of Catalonia
Assumed office
10 June 2024
ConstituencyGirona
President of the Catalan Alliance
Assumed office
28 October 2020
Preceded byPosition established
Municipal offices
Member of the Ripollès County Council
Assumed office
17 July 2023
Member of the Ripoll City Council
Assumed office
15 June 2019
Personal details
Born
Sílvia Orriols Serra

(1984-10-09) 9 October 1984 (age 40)
Vic, Catalonia, Spain
Political partyCatalan Alliance (2020–present)
Other political
affiliations
Republican Youth of Catalonia (2000s)
Estat Català (2004–2017)
National Front of Catalonia (2017–2020)
SpouseDavid Subirana
Children5
Alma materUniversity of Vic

Biography

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She has a degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Vic and has worked since 2006 as an secretary in a private company. As a politician, she has been active in several political parties. In 2004 she joined the Estat Català lists for the elections to the European Parliament. After the independence referendum in Catalonia in 2017, she began to actively participate in the Ripoll protests against the application of article 155, gradually becoming known thanks to these types of acts.[3]

Subsequently, she joined the National Front of Catalonia, a party with which she ran in the 2019 local elections in Ripoll and obtained 503 votes and one councilor. The other parties in the council agreed on a cordon sanitaire, with the commitment not to agree or participate in electoral debates with her. In March 2020, she left the party and continued in the council as an independent councilor.[4]

In July of that same year she founded a new political party, the Catalan Alliance party, with which she defends the independence of Catalonia and anti-Islam positions; The party considers that immigration is actually an invasion, an idea that is linked to the conspiracy theory of the great replacement.[5]

Later, she ran for mayor of Ripoll in the 2023 local elections. The Catalan Alliance was the most voted party in the municipality, with 6 councilors and more than 30% of the votes. Faced with the possibility of her becoming mayor, most of the remaining political forces tried to implement a cordon sanitaire to prevent Orriols from becoming the mayor of Ripoll. However, these efforts were unsuccessful because Junts per Catalunya distanced itself from them, thus allowing Orriols to become the municipality's mayor.[6][7]

She successfully ran in the 2024 Parliament of Catalonia election for Girona, getting one seat, while managing to obtain another one for Lleida for her Catalan Alliance party.

References

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  1. ^ "Sìlvia Orriols serà candidata a l'alcaldia de Ripoll". Ripollès Digital (in Catalan). 19 March 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  2. ^ 324cat (17 June 2023). "L'extrema dreta de Sílvia Orriols governarà Ripoll pel desacord entre Junts, ERC, el PSC i la CUP". 3Cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 19 March 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ NacióDigital. "Sílvia Orriols a Ripoll: d'Estat Català a guanyar amb islamofòbia". www.naciodigital.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  4. ^ NacióDigital. "Front Nacional de Catalunya i Som Catalans, aïllats per la resta de partits a Ripoll". www.naciodigital.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  5. ^ "Quién es Sílvia Orriols, la alcaldesa ultra de Ripoll abiertamente "islamófoba" y con ideas racistas". www.lasexta.com (in Spanish). 18 January 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  6. ^ NacióDigital. "Ripoll: per què un partit d'extrema dreta independentista a Ripoll?". www.naciodigital.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  7. ^ 324cat (17 June 2023). "L'extrema dreta de Sílvia Orriols governarà Ripoll pel desacord entre Junts, ERC, el PSC i la CUP". 3Cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 19 March 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)